Eurozone - A crisis waiting to happen?

French colleagues around at the time report that General de Gaulle was a man of few words; one of them being "Non" But he wasn't averse to soundbites: "How can you govern a country which makes 146 types of cheese?"

Imagine how much harder it is for the European Union with a domain stretching from the Baltic to the Aegean. Election results in France and Greece demonstrate there is no longer an appetite for austerity and despite scolding from Chancellor Merkel, the days of the complete Eurozone could be numbered, with some members taking an early exit.

It started well; after World War II the desire was to co-operate not fight. We had the ECSC, EFTA, then the EU: lots of initials, little actual co-operation. So how could the venerable ideal of a European Union become so unstuck?

Quote, Unquote

Economist John Maynard Keynes once said of the business cycle that in the long run all would be well. He added waspishly, "but in the long run we are all dead."

Watching last week's unraveling of the financial system he might have a point ... but this time in the short run. $2.5 trillion has been wiped off global stock exchanges. It has been the worse week in the markets since 2008 and Lehman Brothers.

And the response from government? As another economist J K Galbraith put it, "In the US though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes." Barack Obama has been characterised as being well meaning but ineffectual. Things have hardly been any better in Europe.